Irish Under-20's 2023

Yeah, Costello's and Ben Murphy's probably looked the most severe - he was only on about 10 mins (Costello). A few guys who've had some injury problems this season like Conor O'Tighearnaigh and Fintan Gunne picked up knocks too. Plenty of others that didn't look overly serious (but very hard to tell).

Final post on this game - both Irish U20s out halves looked good.

Sam Prendergast is a pretty incredible athlete. He's 6ft 3 or possibly bigger, but seems to still have very good footwork, balance and pace. Ireland U20s had a really nice shape to their attack on a couple of occasions when he was there, where he was picking nice options in crowded passing channels. He reminded me a bit of Harry Mallinder (who looked a super player at 20s and won a JWC, but hasn't pressed on since then) in style, in that he's big and rangy but still seems to have a lot of skill and talent to him.

He outplayed Charlie Tector (who albeit was behind a more makeshift pack), but who didn't really shine yesterday.

Harry West (went to school in King's Hospital) brought a real spark to things as well. He made a couple of nice line breaks and took his try well (after a good linebreak from the excellent Fintan Gunne). If I were a Connacht fan I'd be optimistic on West.

Finally, first proper time seeing Fintan Gunne in the flesh and he justified the hype. Electric player - looked to create something almost every time he touched the ball. Some really nice snipes as well, and his pass looked to have good range on it.

It can be hard to tell at this level, but he looks to be a serious prospect.

Really strong squad. That squad should have a good shout at contesting for a GS this year (especially the way the fixtures are), and yet still also contains 7 U19s who should be there the following season.

Split is:

Leinster 16

Munster 7 (no Munster backs apart from Jack Oliver at 9)

Connacht 4

Ulster 4

IQ Rugby 1

Liam Molony is injured, pretty sure Ihechi Oji was dropped / not selected.

Other notable omissions I think are Andrew Osborne (injured I believe), George Shaw (not sure what's happening there), Max Dunne (would have been on the fringes and played in some of the warm up games), and possibly Cameron Doak (who I believe is still U19). Also not sure if Daniel Leane of St Mary's was underage for this team or not.

Yeah, that try showed incredible pace and athleticism. I don't think he's been around the squad at all though, and is still a year young for the grade maybe? (I could be wrong on that, but I think he played U18 Clubs last year).

On Oji, I've read some pretty bad reviews of his performances for UL Bohs this year, but haven't seen him in person.

I think it's fair to say the weakest area of this Irish U20s side on paper at the moment is probably from 11-15, so not a good sign that he couldn't push his way in there.

It's an interesting point, and connected to a piece I read on another site:

This piece is specifically about GAA, but some very interesting takeaways or readthroughs imo in a rugby context. He's assessing the development of young players based on when they reach maturity or their stage of maturity. Commenting on players who looked dominant at U14s for example, but were simply earlier in their stage of maturation, I.e. already at 100% of their adult height. Interestingly, those sort of players tended to also have skill deficiencies at higher levels too, because they can rely too heavily on athleticism at the younger levels and don't develop the other skills.

I'm in the same place as you when it comes to the U20s - to me it's nice to have success there, but ultimately it's about player assessment and development. A successful Irish U20s side is one that just keeps churning out high quality international players within a year or two, trophies are a by product.